Apparatus for severing vitreous articles



Jan. 29 1924.

F. w. SMITH APPARATUS FOR SEVERING VITREOUS ARTICLES 1921 3 Sheets-Sheet 1 Filed March 11 gmvwn'coz M/dA/M Jan. 29 1924. 1,82,27

F. w. SMITH APPARATUS FOR SEVERI'NG VITREOUS ARTICLES Filed March 11. 1921 a Sheets-Sheet 2 F H1111" I I in] fi. o 6.7

I 5 51 I 2 I i I 2 I K i "r 1 I Svwemtoz r P. w. SMITH v v I Jan.

APPARATUS FOR SEVERING VITREOUS ARTICLES Filed March 11 1921 3 Sheets-Sheet 3 l I I Smventoz M WMM 35 elf/ 001404 3 Patented a... 29, 1924.

UNHTED STATES I meant PATENT orrics.

FRANCIS W. SMITH, OF CRANFORD, NEW JERSEY, ASSIGNOR TO OORNING GLASS WORKS, OF CORNING, NEW YORK, A CORPORATION OF NEW YORK.

APPARATUS FORSEVERING VITREOUS ARTICLES.

Application filed March 11, 1921. Serial No. 451,630.

T all whom it may concern.

Be it known that I, FRANCIS' W. SMITH, a citizen of the United States of America, res'idin at Cranford, in the'county of Union and State of New Jersey, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Apparatus for severing Vitreous Articles, of which the following is a full, clear, and exact description.

This invention relates to machines for severing undesired portions of vitreous articles from the body or useful portions thereof and has for one of its principal objects to provide a machine embodying means for receiving and holding the articles, means for severing the undesired portion of each 'article, and means for releasing the articles after the severing operation has been performed. Other objects and advantages will appear as the invention is hereinafter disclosed.

Referrin to the drawings which illustrate what now consider a preferred physical embodiment of the invention Fi 1 is a sectional elevation taken sub-' stantially on the line 1--1 of Fig. 2.

Fig. 2 is an end elevation partly in section and certain parts being omitted and others broken away for clarity in illustration.

Fig. 3 is a detail sectional elevation of one of the article-receiving and holding means.

Fig. 4 is a section on the line 4--4 of Fig. 2. as ig. 5 is an elevation, partly in section, of the bulb of an incandescent lamp as it comes from a blowing apparatus.

While my invention is adapted to be. employed in the manufacture of bottles, jars, vases and other articles it may best be explained in its application to the removal of the moil from incandescent lamp bulbs. To facilitate the explanation I shall briefly and generally outline one form of blowing apparatus with which the hereinafter described form of the invention is adapted to be employed.

There is now employed in the glass-blowing arts a machine which comprises a continuously rotated drum which automatically picks up batches of molten glass, blows the same into the general form of incandescent lam bulbs, and then discharges the articles in t is form. A bulb is illustratedin Fig. 5 in substantially the form in which it is discharged from the blowing apparatus. It will be seen that this article comprises the body portion 10 and what is known in the art as a moil 11. The next step in the manufacture is to remove the moil 11 from the body portion 10 on a plane indicated at 12-12. Heretofore this has been accomplished manually with the aid of an oxyacetylene blowpipe or other suitable severing means. The machine which I have invented performs automatically this heretofore manually accomplished operation. For a clearer understandin of the hereinafter described specific physlcal embodiment of the invention, let it be assumed that the blowing apparatus is of such designand continuously operated at such speed as to discharge two bulbs every three seconds, each bulb being substantially of the form indicated in Fig. 5. I shall now proceed to describe the machine illustrated in Figs. 1 to 4.

This machine comprises two movable carriages shown in the form of disks 13, 14 secured to a shaft 15 journaled in a bearing 16. In view of the apparent similarity between the carriages 13, 14, the instrumentalities supported thereby and the means for controlling and operating the same, a detailed description of one will suflice for both. The carriage 13 supports a plurality (six in the present instance) of angularly spaced bulb-receiving and holding means designated generally as 17 to 22 inclusive. The devices 17 to 22 are identical in construction and operation so that a description of one will suflice for all. For this urpose particular attention is directed to fig. 3.

The sleeve 23 secured to the face of the disk 13 is provided with race-ways 24, 2.4 for a plurality of balls 25. A hub 26, in theform of a sleeve, extends through the sleeve 23 and. has secured thereto at one end a disk 27. The other end of-the hub is screw-threaded to receive a nut 28, this nut together with the shoulder portion 30 serving as the raceways which coo erate with the raceways 24 to form a ball earing for the disk 27. A lockv nut 29 is provided for holding the bearing parts in adjusted position and for a pprpose which will hereinafter appear. e disk 27 has pivotally secured thereto a plurality (four in the present case) of holding or gripping members 31. Each of these members is pivotally cured to the disk 27. Ttwill be noted that the springs 35 bias the members 31 toward bulb-disengaging position as indicated 1n dotted lines in Fig. 3. Preferably the tips of the bulb-engaging arms, are padded with asbestos or other suitable soft, heat-resisting material, as indicated at 36, to cushion the impact or shock incident to the movement of the members 31 into contact'with the bulb.

The disk 27 has also secured thereto a table 37, dished to conform to the sealed end of the bulb 10, to form a seat for the same, and preferably lined at 38 with the same material as the material 36.

The head 34 which controls movement of the members 31 is secured to a rod 40 mounted for longitudinal sliding movement in the nut 29 and a liner 41 secured in the hub or sleeve 26. The rod 40 is biased to the position indicated in full lines in Fig. 3 by means of a compression spring 42 which seats at one end a ainst the nut 29 and at its other end against a collar 43 secured to the rod 40. The strength of the spring 42 exceeds the combined strength of the springs 35 by an amount depending upon the desired pressure of the members 31 upon the bulb 10 when said members 31 are. in bulb-holding or gripping position. It shall now proceed to describe the means which, in conjunction with certain elements above described, controls the operation of the bulb-gripping and releasing means.

Each rod 40 is provided at its inner end with a ball 44, freely rotatable about all axes in a socket 45 secured to the rod. The

balls 44 vare adapted to travel in contact with and becontrolled by a stationary cam 46 shown secured to the bearing 16. This cam is of such design that when the bulb-receiving device cecupies the position indicated at 17 in Fig. 1 the rod 40 is pushed radially outward and the head 34 occupies the position shown in dotted lines in Fig. 3. When in this position the members 31 are in their outer position as shown in Fig. 1. Assuming that the carriage 13 is moving in the direction of the arrow shown in Fig. 1 the ball 44 next rides down of? the raised cam surface and the parts assume the position shown in full lines in Fig. 3. This position of parts is maintained until slightly after the device 17 reaches the position indicated at 21 in Fi 1, when the roller 44 again rides up on t e raised portion of the cam 46 and the rod 40 is forced radially outward. The head 34 is then in the dotted iaieefavc line position indicated in Fig- 3 and springs 35 move the members 31 outward to release the bulb and permit it to be discharged from the machine. The description of the cycle of operation of the device 17 (see Fig. 1) isequally applicable to the devices 18 to 22 carried by the disk 13 and also to the six similar devices carried by the disk 14 andoperated by the cam 46.

When any one of the bulb holders lf, 18, 19, etc., reaches a position indicated generally at 20 or 20 in Fig. 2 it is subjected to the moil severing operation which may be, and preferably is, accomplished by means of the following instrumentalities. A wheel 50, secured to ashaft 51, journaled in a stationary bearing 52, is continously rotated by means including a pulley 53, secured to the shaft 51 and driven by any suitable power mechanism .(not shown). When the periphery of any disk 27 comes into contact with the periphery of the wheel the former, together with the elements supported thereb including b'ulb 10, is rotated. The perip cries of the wheel 50 and the various disks 27 are preferably covered with leather or other'suitable slipminimizing material. A .blowpipe 55 is mounted in a stationary bracket 56 in such position that its flame will play upon the periphery of the rotating bulb 10 so as to fuse the glass on the plane 12-12 (see Figs. 2 and 5.) and to sever the moil 11 from the bottom portion. The moil will then drop away and the flame will round off the lower edge of the body portion 10 of the bulb. Obviously an additional blowpipe 55' would be provided for the carriage 14.

The machine shown in Figs. 1 to 4 is synchronized with respect to the blowing apparatus with which it is to cooperate. in other words, bearing in mind that the last mentioned apparatus was assumed to discharge two bulbs every three seconds, the moil-removing machine should be so operated with respect to the blowing apparatus as to receive two bulbs therefrom every three seconds. In such a machine I prefer that the carriages 13, 14 be operated intermittently or step-by-step with each period of dwell lasting 2.0 seconds and each period of movement 1.0 second.

Tn order to efiect this synchronous, stepby-step operation, mechanism such as that illustrated in Figs. 2 and 4 may be employed. This mechanism may be constructed substantially as follows.

The shaft 15 has secured thereto the star wheel 60 of a Geneva stop mechanism whose cam 61 and the disk 62 carrying the pin are secured to the shaft 64. The latter is 'ournaled for rotation in suitable bearing rackets 65 and is continuously driven from the blowing machine (not shown) through any suitable gearing, not completely shown,

but comprising a worm gear 66 and worm 67. The timing of-tlie shaft 64 with respect to blowing machine and the gear ratio are such that'thedisks or carriages 13. 14 are moved one-sixth of a revolution between successive discharges of bulbs from the blowing machine. The complete operation may be summarized'as follows and for convenience I shall refer to successive positions of the bulb-receiving means asstations 17 to 22.

When the blowing apparatus discharges two bulbs 10, the latter drop down into a pair of the bulb-receiving devices of which one is shown at 17 in Fig. 1. The latter are next carried forward one step and reach station 18, the. succeeding pair of bulb-receiving devices being brought into position at station 17 to receive the next pair of bulbs dropped from the blowing'apparatus. Similar y when an pair of bulb-receiving devices is moved l rom station 17 to station 18, the immediately succeeding pair is moved into position from station 22'to station '17, to receive a pair of bulbs from the blowing machine. When any bulb-receiving device passes from station 17 its ball 44 leaves the cam 46 or 46' and the gri ping fingers 31 move into contact with the bulb 10, securely holding the latter in position. When any bulb-receiving device reaches station 20 it is rotated in the manner previously described, i. e., by the continuously rotating wheel 50, and the bulb carried thereby is also rotated about its axis. The blow-pipe flame then acts to fuse the glass and the moil 11 drops away, the lower edge of the bulb being rounded ofi' b the heatof the flame. As

soon as any 0 the bulb-receiving and holding devices passes beyond station 21 its ball rides up on the raised portion of the cam 46 or 46'and the springs 35 move the arms 31 outwardly to release the bulb and permit the latter to drop or be discharged.

In the particular case under considerati n the moil-removing machine handles the entire output of the blowing apparatus automatically. Bulbs are received by and discharged from the machine at the rate of two bulbs every three seconds. The period of dwell at each of stations 17 to 22 is 2.0 seconds, and time for movement from one station to the next is 1.0 second. The blowpipes will sufiice to remove the moil from articles of the nature above described during the 2.0 second dwell at station 20. If desirable or necessary, for articles having thicker walls or of different material, the articles may be preheated at station 19 and the moil subsequently fused off at station 20. Before the articles are released (slightly beyond station 21) three seconds would have elapsed since they left the station 20. This afiords time for the articles to cool sufiiciently to permit their safe removal or discharge. If desirable artificial cooling means such as a. cooling blast may be employed between stations 20 and 21.

If it is desired to change the periods of dwell and movement, step-by-step mechanisms other than the specific one selected for purpose of illustration herein may be employed.

I prefer to provide a plurality of spring clips or fingers 131 (four in the present instance) resiliently to receive the bulbs as they drop from the blowing apparatus into the moil-removing machine, thereby cushioning the shock incident to such dropping of the bulbs.

In accordance with the provisions of the patent statutes, I have herein described the principle of operation of my invention, together with the apparatus whichI now consider to represent the best embodiment thereof, but I desire to have it understood that the apparatus disclosed is only illustrative and that the invention can be carried out by other means. Also whileit is designed to use the various features and elements in the combinations and relations de scribed, some of these may be altered and others omitted without interfering with the more general results and effects outlined, and

said first mentioned means after the sever-- ing operation has been accomplished.

2. A machine for severing portions of vitreous articles from the body portions thereof, comprising in combination, means for gripping a vitreous article, means for inverting the article while gripped, means for severing a portion of the article from the body portion thereof by fusion while inverted, and means for automatically releasing the article from said first mentioned means after the severing operation has been accomplished.

3. A machine for receiving vitreous articles from a blowing apparatus and for removing the moil therefrom, said'machine comprising in combination, a rotatable carriage in a substantially vertical plane rovided with means for receiving and hol ing the articles as they are released from the blowing apparatus, means for rotating said carriage whereby to bring the article into inverted position, means for removing the moil from the articles held upon said carriage while in substantially inverted position, and means cont-rolled by the movement of said carriage for releasing the articles after the moil-removing operation has been performed.

4. A machine for receiving vitreous articles from a blowing apparatus and for re moving the moil therefrom, said machine comprising in combination, a rotatable carriage in a substantially vertical plane provided with a plurality of angularly spaced article-receiving and holding means, means for rotating said carriage so that a receiving means is in position to receive the articles as they are discharged from the blowing apparatus, means located adjacent said carriage for severing the moil from each of the articles moved by said carriage while the articles are in a substantially inverted position, and means controlled by movement of said carriage for releaseing each article after the moil has been severed therefrom.

5. A machine for severing portions of vitreous articles from the body portions thereof, comprising in combination, means for receivin and holding the vitreous article, means for inverting the article while so held, means for severing a. portion of the article from the bodypo-rtion thereof While held in inverted position, and means for releasing the article from said first mentioned means after the severing operation has been accomplished. i

6. A machine for severing portions of vitreous articles having a closed end, from the body portion thereof, comprising means for receiving and holding the articles with their closed ends down, means for inverting the articles while so held, and, means for severing a portion of the articles from the body portions thereof while in inverted position.

7. A machine for severing portions of vitreous articles having a closed end from the body portions thereof, comprising means for receiving and holding the articles with their closed ends down, means for inverting the articles while so held, means for severing a portion of the articles from the body portions thereof while in inverted position, and means for releasing the articles from said first mentioned means after the severing operation has been accomplished.

In testimony whereof I hereto aflix my signature.

FRANCIS W. SMITH. 

